Studies on the total synthesis and evaluation of antitumor antibiotics including (1) kopsifoline, (2) lycorine, (3) pancratistatin, (4) vindoline an vinca alkaloids, (5) pyrimidoblamic acid and bleomycin analogs, (6) P-3A, (7) indolocarbazoles including rebeccamycin, and (8) cordytropolone are detailed. In the studies, the investigation, development, and use of: (1) heterocyclic and acyclic azadiene Diels-Alder reactions, (2) the thermal cycloaddition reactions of cyclopropenone ketals including those of reversibly generated -delocalized singlet vinylcarbenes, and (3) the tandem Diels-Alder/1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of 1,3,4- oxadiazoles will be pursued and provide the opportunity for the discovery and development of new powerful synthetic methodology. The studies target antitumor compounds that express their effects through selective protein (e.g., tubulin, PKC, EF1A elongation factor) or sequence selective DNA binding and provide well-defined problems on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of synthetic, mechanism-based analogs in which the structural features responsible for their protein or DNA binding affinity, selectivity, and functional reactivity will e addressed, identified, optimized, and exploited.